Betting on Katie Couric‘s charms has proved a lucrative investment for both the veteran anchor and the companies that have hired her in the past, earning her $15 million in 2006 as the host of the CBS Evening News, a number she nearly tripled when she signed with ABC as the host of the eponymous Katie for $40 million in 2012.
Despite her wide-ranging appeal and her clear earning potential, there’s something about Katie’s super-optimistic brand of journalistic can-do, which, while perfectly suited for television, seems an odd fit for the Internet. She’s both too good a journalist to be reduced to such a small scale, and too pleasant to be part of the Internet’s ever-churning complaint machine, a stage that both opens her up to countless new viewers and puts her at risk of being viewed by no one — because, while improving under CEO Marissa Meyer, the new Yahoo still has yet to create a rabid fanbase, and often falls short of the mark when it comes to reporting hard news.
However, if Meyer is hoping to create brand loyalty among women with her repackaged product, Couric may be the one person who can help her do it. Yahoo has never been an edgy destination, and perhaps, that’s what Meyer’s banking on with the relatively safe addition of Couric — a home run for a female-dominated audience already comfortable with Couric’s content. Katie may be able to deliver clicks where other female-focused products, like Shine, have failed, giving the former Internet titan a fighting chance against name-brand blogs. Her familiar face in the sea of pumpkin pie recipes and articles about soldiers reunited with their dogs currently hosted by the site could provide just the right amount of credibility to the site, without any fear of her smiley face spewing the snark some newer patrons of the Internet are not yet ready to embrace.
Let’s just hope she knows to stay out of the comments section.
Check out more celebrity gossip with Emily Stone on Celebrity Buzz via FilmOn:
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